Another Tesco deception

DD who worked at Asda for three years says this isn't legal.
I wouldn't have thought so either.

If they don't usually have a huge variety, then it sort of is a special. Not much of a con either when so easily seen through.

Not that I know the least thing about Doritos. I don't think I've ever bought any.

Not everyone has time to read all the price labels and seeing the word special they would expect at least some reduction.I might follow this up if it might not be legal.I am fed up with the way the big supermarkets are sometimes less than ethical in their dealings with the public.

Well said greenfinch, as I've said on here before, the large supermarkets are unethical and devious with their marketing.

Yes I was trying to find that thread gangy5.

ASDA has just had it's knuckles rapped for misrepresentation.

www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/asda-ordered-to-change-misleading-supermarket-prices-a7003006.html

I'll try to find it - sometimes when I google my name - Gransnet posts come up!

thatbags Why do you say it is "easily seen through". I don't suppose everybody knows the exact price of every product they usually buy. It would be quite natural, I think, to assume that if something is advertised as "Special" then it is cheaper. I think it's misleading.

I know all the supermarkets are up to these tricks but I particularly dislike Tesco's bullying tactics and never shop there.

I said "easily seen through" because that appeared to me to be what the OP had done: seen through the scam easily. It wasn't about price so much as the notice saying "Specials". She saw through it.

If people don't know the prices of things they commonly buy (I don't), I suggest that this is because it doesn't matter much to them. You'd know if you needed to such as because every penny counted. Well, I would. Wouldn't most people? Genuine question.

It's not bullying. No-one is forced to buy Doritos or any other non-essential item.

I think we have to agree to differ in our approach to personal responsibility when it comes to resistance to silly advertising, eloethan. My view is that we have a responsibility to ourselves to "get wise" to advertising tricks. This doesn't excuse advertising tricks but it does make one less easily duped by them. From my point of view that's just the same as taking responsibility for any other part of one's ongoing, lifelong education.

We either need to know the prices of things we regularly buy, because we're on a budget, or we don't because a few pence here or there doesn't matter.

Doritos don't figure on my shopping list either and IMO they're a non-essential and not worth a fuss.

However, I do read the labels unless I'm in a hurry and go by the unit price if I'm deciding between some buys. Also like to use common sense re special offers. Though a 'special' doesn't actually mention 'price' does it?

I do wonder about things like onions for example. A string bag of 3 costs £1 in my local supermarket. They are right next to the loose ones where you could choose your own and three would cost considerably less, and you wouldn't have a string bag to dispose of

As can be seen from the article re ASDA that I posted earlier, there is action being taken about misleading statements.

BUT, when I go into a supermarket, I look at the prices for the item I intend to buy and choose the best option that shop has. I am NOT going to shop around for a better price, it would cost me more in fuel than I could possibly save.

Surely we realise that stores are in business to try to sell us products at the best price for them and their investors, buyer beware.

I 'dispose' of plastic string bags by using them. I collect all those small bits of soap that are difficult to use on their own. I tie a knot in one end of an onion bag, plonk in my collection of soap ends, and tie the other end. Hey presto! a bar (of sorts!) of soap. It's very effective as you have a hand scrubber built in.

They are also useful for holding flexes together (see photo). And we have one over a vent pipe to prevent great tits from nesting in it. Where they build the nest is too deep for chciks to fledge and I got fed up of fishing out skeletons.

However, I only buy bagged onions when I need a plastic string bag. Normally I buy them loose because they're cheaper.

eloethan, thinking further on the topic we were discussing earlier, I wonder if you think my approach is to excuse advertising tricks? It isn't, any more than Jack Monroe's advice about how to eat cheaply on a low wage excuses low wages or poverty. My approach is simply a practical one: ways of foiling the attempts of marketeers to dupe us. It just makes sense to me in the same way as Jack Monroe's recipes do. #survival #CopingStrategies

Bum! Now I'm going to have to google Jack Monroe and I'm trying to get rid of the image of little great tit chicks who have been lovingly reared only to perish in a horrible way

Wish I'd never revisited this thread.

Caveat Emptor comes to mind. You have to develop a mind to look at the prices and test out "special" offers.
ASDA sell bananas in a bag at about £1 a bag all looking as if it's a bargain offer, but if you weigh them they cost quite a bit more than the loose ones. Buying loose fruit usually costs less than ready bagged.

In ADSA I buy Yorkshire tea. Some weeks the very big boxes 240bags or so are cheaper per bag and a couple of weeks later they have shifted the lower price to the smaller boxes, They keep switching this on a regular basis. I always check now. I don't know if it's the supermarkets themselves do this price switching or if it's the manufactures promotions.

As mentioned on another thread I take a calculator with me when shopping and yes I do know the cost of the things I buy (I have a spreadsheet which I complete every time I go shopping and total up at the end of the month how much I have spent - yes I know I need to "get a life").

The supermarket tricks which annoy me are the ones where they say something is on special offer but they don't have any of that item on the shelves. I was in Sainsburys a couple of weeks ago and they had dishwasher tablets on sale - none on the shelves so I asked an assistant, she checked and came back to say they had none in the storeroom and didn't know when they would be getting any more in. The next time they were in stock the price was back to normal!

The old Safeway used to give a rain check if this happened and you could buy it at the offer price when it came back in. Progress ?

It's an old supermarket trick to label something as a special ( in order to get rid of a lot of stock) but I agree that it IS a trick Greenfinch and as such duping the customer.Not everyone has the time to check the unit price ( agree it's a good idea to do so if you have the time however) and I had thought that supermarkets were becoming more responsible about honesty to the customers, but perhaps not.

thatbags...... You are very practical indeed.

Of course Doritos are non essential food items but that is not the issue which is dishonest and deceptive advertising. Yes I did see through it but I an a very astute shopper. I realise it is no good just complaining on this forum and so l have written a letter which I shall give to the manager tomorrow. Watch this space!

Making a mountain out of a molehill

I agree Anya.

I prefer to see it as just one small example of insidious behaviour by a company not known for its generosity of spirit.

Greenfinch, I don't know which company you are referring too, but if it is Tesco, I must wholeheartedly disagree.
Tesco in our village provide support to many local organisations, allow use of their conference room for local groups to meet and provide the only substantial parking which is used by all the other businesses. Apart from of course, providing employment for local people. They are one of the three main employers in our village.
At Christmas, Tesco supply all the food and provide waiting staff in our Day Centre, for their annual dinner, which is much appreciated. Yes, they do have a motive, they want to be seen as a caring company, which in turn will encourage people to shop with them.
I can't see why people knock supermarkets for what they do. If you don't like them, don't shop there, simple.